Monsters of Grace II (2013)
Monsters of Grace II is the first radio play by avant-garde theater director and designer Robert Wilson. The production takes its name from the 1998 multimedia opera collaboration with composer Philip Glass and was developed during a concept workshop at The Watermill Center in the summer of 2013.
Monsters of Grace II is structured as a set of themes and variations that sit in counterpoint within a four act form. It draws on texts from antiquity, the the early Modern Age, as well as contemporary texts: spanning works from Lucretius and Gertrude Stein to Ezra Pound and Christopher Knowles. As the texts begin to disintegrate and collide, we are left to rethink the development, function, and meaning of language itself. The shear power of language is juxtaposed with its innate limitations, opening a window for us to consider the human condition.
Monsters of Grace II
written and directed by Robert Wilson
production director: Ekkehard Skoruppa
music and sound composition: Dom Bouffard and Adam Lenz
speakers: Isabelle Huppert, Angela Winkler, Jürgen Holtz, Anna Graenzer, and Christopher Knowles.
Recordings were also made with Lady GaGa, Isabella Rossellini, and Inge Keller for the production.
dramaturgy: Iris Drögekamp and Peter Liermann
co-director: Tilman Hecker
producers: SWR2, hr2 Kultur, and the Karlsruhe State
University of Arts and Design
Sponsored by the German Federal Cultural Foundation
Monsters of Grace II was premiered in a live public recording session during the ARD Hörspieltage at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie in Karlsruhe, Germany on November 9, 2013.
A second performance was held at the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, Germany on November 10, 2013.
